In known manner, pharmaceutical products are offered for sale in bottles usually comprising a reservoir having a neck on which is mounted a dispensing tip forming a metering pump, for example.
The dispensing tip is conventionally protected by a closure device including a cap intended to be placed on the container or to be removed from that container by relative movement between the cap and the container including an axial component.
Thus it is known to equip the closure device with means for snap-fitting the cap onto the container that can be activated by substantially axial relative movement between the cap and the container. In this first case, the cap is placed on the container or removed from that container by a relative movement between the cap and the container including only an axial component. It is also known to use a cap having an interior screwthread screwed onto an exterior screwthread of the neck of the container. In this second case, the cap is placed on the container or removed from that container by a relative movement between the cap and the container including an axial component and a rotation component producing a screwing action.
To access the dispensing tip, it then suffices, in the first case, to pull axially on the cap, a moderate traction force generally being sufficient to unlock the snap-fitting means by overcoming a localized resistance and, in the second case, to unscrew the cap, by applying a rotation force that is likewise moderate.
This makes it possible to render the dispensing tip accessible to everyone, including persons with little strength, for example elderly persons or convalescent persons.
The drawback is that a child can also easily access the dispensing tip and therefore the contents of the reservoir, which may be hazardous in some cases.
Moreover, as regulations evolve, more and more countries require bottled pharmaceutical products placed on sale in their territory to have secure closure means commonly referred to as child resistant closure (CRC) packaging. Such secure means for example enable a cap to be removed only by movements that are a priori mutually contradictory. These means are often difficult to use, however, and often require a relatively high physical force.
Also known, from documents CH 613 907 and US 2004/149756, are devices for closing a container, of the type including a cap intended to be placed on the container or to be removed from that container by a relative movement between the cap and the container including an axial component, the cap carrying at least two essentially diametrically opposite security projections, each provided with an axial locking abutment that can be moved radially between:                a so-called cooperation position, favored by elastic biasing, in which the locking abutment is intended to cooperate with a complementary locking abutment carried by the container to retain the cap on the container,        a so-called separation position, in which the locking abutment is intended to be separated from the complementary locking abutment carried by the container to allow the release of the cap relative to the container,further comprising a security ring mounted around the cap so as to allow radial elastic deformation thereof by ovalization when the security ring is compressed radially in at least one “compression” direction, the security projections being arranged on an internal surface of the security ring and aligned in a direction essentially perpendicular to the compression direction, the radial position of each axial locking abutment carried by the security ring changing, by ovalization of this security ring, from its cooperation position to its separation position.        